Laser sights have been utilized for many years in connection with firearms, such as rifles and pistols. These laser sights are typically mounted to either the trigger guard or to the barrel of the firearm, as shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,758,448, 4,152,754, 4,212,109 and 4,168,588. Today's firearms easily accept such laser sights as they are typically manufactured with a mounting bar or ridge upon the barrel to which a sighting devices such as a laser sight or telescopic sight is mounted.
Devising a sighting device for archery bows however have proven to be difficult. Archery bows typically utilize “pin sights” to aid the archer in aiming the bow. Such pin sights include a slotted mounting plate coupled to the handle of the bow and a series of pins mounted to the mounting plate for movement along the slots. The archer moves each pin vertically along the slot in order to sight in each particular pin sight for a select distance to the target. Once the pin sights are set, the archer visually aligns the pin sight, for that specific distance to the target, with the target when shooting an arrow. These pin sights however are not very accurate as the depend largely upon the position of the archer's head during sighting and as they do not provide adequate horizontal alignment of the target.
In an effort to provide more accurate bow sights developers have mounted lasers to bows which direct a beam of light to a target. These laser bow sights have typically been mounted to the handle portion of the bow, as shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,606,629 and 5,495,675. The handle mounted laser bow sights however are difficult to mount as the configuration of each bow handle differs between bow manufacturers. As such, the laser sight oftentimes moves or slides and therefore becomes misaligned during use. Furthermore, the mounting of these sights upon the handle oftentimes scratches or scars the handle. Lastly, the laser sight is mounted upon a portion of the bow that flexes somewhat during use, thereby further exasperating the previously recited problems of providing a stable mounting platform for the sighting device.
Accordingly, it is seen that a need remains for a laser bow sight which overcomes problems associated with that of the prior art. It is to the provision of such therefore that the present invention is primarily directed.